Ghulam Hussain: Book Binder of Hyderabad

It is one of the busy roads of the city, as the sun rises the hustle and bustle of traffic starts, on that very road people's eyes itch due to smoke, even one could hardly see the stars in sky due to smoke. As the night falls suddenly the small shops were few old men and few young guys sit in and try to prolong life of second hand books, they are handed over these books in hope that they (books) would get new lives in from their skillful hands. 

These are the hands of skillful binders, who now from decades sit at Sarfraz Chari and Chotiki Ghati of Hyderabad binding books from dawn to dusk.

The Sarfraz Chari is named after Sindh's Kalhora ruler Mian Sarfraz Kalhoro, he succeeded Mian Ghulam Shah Kalhoro, on the betrayal of Talpurs, the Kalhora rulers were forced to leave the throne of Sindh. However, history kept on moving forward things changed, people were replaced. Even the means of earning beard and butter have changed.

 At Sarfraz Chari I met a book binder named Ghulam Hussain, who from 25 years owns a shop of binding second hand books at this road. He along with his brother started the little shop he owns today, after his brother died he carried on the business solely. He uses hand made gums, thread and paper for binding.

"In present times the business is not same as it was in older days," he told me: "I came into this profession after untimely death of my brother, had he been alive today, I won't have enter this profession, but now it has become my beard and butter," he said while touching his tummy.

"Why aren't you satisfied from this business now?" I asked him.

"In older days there were book lovers, who valued books, we hardly used to get free time, while their wasn't such inflation and economic uncertainty, that we face today," Ghulam Hussain said.

He further said that in present time he hardly got books for binding.

He showed me different books that he had finished binding, I noticed that most of the books were religious. He mentioned that there were times when even school kids used to come to his shop so that their text books could be bidden, while people used to leave their second hand books with him, which he would bind and sell them on low prices to poor and needy.

I was told that at present he earned merely two to four hundred rupees per day. Ghulam Hussain said if government was willing to help them, their life standard could also be raised.

(Thanks to Dear Friend Akhtar Hafeez)